Movies and sand

On the eve of Saint John the Baptist’s Day one of Ukraine’s most popular open-air festivals, known as the “Long Art” International Sand Sculpture Festival, took place on Sun City beach, just a short walk from Hidropark metro station to Venetsianska Zatoka. If the public treats their movie stars made of sand gently, everyone will be able to enjoy the festival exhibits until the end of the summer.

This year’s fascinating event attracted the usual famous personalities-actors, TV hosts, film and theater directors, sculptors, designers, painters, singers, and other fans of “living sculpture,” as images made of sand and ice are sometimes called. Olha Sumska, the star of Ukrainian cinema and theater, and the festival’s honorary president, Oleh Pinchuk, presented the Grand Prix to a Russian team of sculptors, Yuri Fushtey, Andrei Trubin, Anastasia Tyunina, and Daria Vyazovskaya, for their work based on the full-length animated film Ice Age. The sculptors made a plate at the foot of a huge squirrel with a nut. The caption read: “Our squirrel hasn’t eaten for 20,000 years.”

This composition won over visitors of all ages from the first minutes of the festival. This year, for the first time, the Grand Prix was awarded by the public, not a jury. So the Ice Age sculpture also won the People’s Choice award. The Russian sculptors, inspired by their victory, decided to put their extra adrenaline to good use and bungee-jumped from a height of 40 meters, which netted them a certificate.

Since this yearly festival is supported by the State City Administration of Dnipropetrovsk and Pleso Company, these two organizations joined efforts and presented their People’s Choice prize — beach soccer clothing and balls — to the Chinese team (Hu Wei Che, Ang Dun, Ziang Zin Wei, Yang Eng) for their work entitled Shrek. Ukrainian sculptors Liudmyla and Yuriy Mysko also shared the prize for their Vakula’s Flight over St. Petersburg. They fashioned Vakula to resemble Oleh Skrypka, who starred in the popular Ukrainian TV musical Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka. At last year’s festival these sculptors recreated Ruslana’s “Wild Dances.” Immortalizing popular Ukrainian personalities in sand will become a fine tradition and the festival’s main attraction.

There was a sculpture bearing a striking resemblance to the French actor Gerard Depardieu, who is a frequent visitor to Ukraine. The Obelix-Depardieu sculpture featured wonderful windmills and legs high-kicking in a cancan dance (Tetiana Dreieva and Yevhen Nikolaichuk of Ukraine). Nivea Sun was one of sponsors of the festival. Before choosing their favorite sculpture, the company supplied all the competitors with a special set of tools for the amateur sculptor, consisting of a small bucket, scoop, rake, bandana, and tubes of sun screen. As a result, none of the sculptors got sunburns, and all their creations were ideally cast in a special kind of sand delivered from a quarry, with clay additives and covered by a special PVA solution and water. The company’s choice was the most sensual and sunlit sculpture entitled Aphrodite (created by Volodymyr Kuznetsov and Oleksandr Volosenko, Ukraine).

Youngsters were mostly attracted by the sand sculptures portraying King Kong (Yuriy Kosterin, Ukraine), Darth Vader, Yoda, and R2D2 from Star Wars (created by 4 th year students Mykyta and Yehor Zihura of the Ukrainian National Academy of Art). The cinematic variety of sand sculptures was dominated by a symbolic one created by Oleksandr Luzan and Dmytro Fedychev of Ukraine, entitled The History of Hollywood: Chaplin. A movie camera placed in Charlie Chaplin’s shoe, along with his easily recognizable hat and cane next to his foot, seemed to scrutinize everything going on around it with its sandy eye.

Some 200 tons of quarry sand were used to create eight sand sculptures and one ton of ice for the ice composition made especially for the Long Art Party that took place after sunset. The festival featured four designs using original decorative materials (Batman, Pirates of the Caribbean, Harry Potter, and The Diary of a Geisha).

Kateryna Liehostayeva, the festival director, says: “These sculptures aren’t afraid of rain. On the contrary, rain makes them stronger. Their only enemy is man, or rather, acts of vandalism. Ukrainians don’t seem to appreciate the opportunity to get a free photograph of themselves against the backdrop of genuine works of art created by professional artists, sculptors, and designers. These kinds of festivals charge admission fees everywhere else in the world, even in our closest neighbor, St. Petersburg. We treasure creative work and mastery, and we want everyone to admire their creations until the end of the summer, for free. These movie heroes made of sand have souls and hearts. If they are well cared for, they may become a calling card of our capital for the rest of the summer.”